Stephen Sweeney

Never fails

Wireless Electricity Is on the Horizon—And It Could ‘Beam’ Power Right to Your House Power beaming could allow an orbiting space-based power station to deliver one gigawatt of solar power, enough to power about 1 million homes annually.

It was interesting to talk with Darren Orf recently about the opportunities and challenges of wireless power beaming. www.popularmechanics.com/science/ener...

Let every nation know… that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty - JFK

Withdraw the state visit invitation to Trump.

Offer one to Zelensky instead. With bells and fucking whistles.

I think this is the closest many of us have ever got to seeing the real Trump. The only consistent thread in his entire unhinged rant was the love & praise for Vladimir Putin. Zelensky has more courage & dignity in his little finger than every member of Trump's regime & fan club combined.

Slava Ukraini

Great article on th risks inherent in US Scientific Institutions staying quiet in the face of Trump's assaults on EDI. Please read. 👇

Many congratulations to Aidas Baltušis who successfully defended his PhD thesis: “Developing a Time-resolved Photoluminescence imaging system using a compressed sensing approach.” Many thanks to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and EPSRC for supporting his project.

If you’d asked AI to write a piece of Russian propaganda in the style of Donald Trump, this is what you’d get. Well done America, you’ve elected a Russian asset as your President.

Trump trumps himself with latest delusional fantasies | John Crace US president loses grip on reality, while delegates at a rightwing conference in London remain cocooned from real world

It's time for us to get serious

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I’m George Takei and I approve of this message.

The new world order is exactly what it looks like. Are we too frozen with fear to name it? | Zoe Williams The truth is paralysing. But after JD Vance met the far-right leader Alice Weidel in Germany, it is time to be clear about what we are seeing, writes Zoe Williams

If it looks like a duck… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial Editorial: The government should not stand aloof as a crisis unfolds in our universities. A new settlement is needed

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

An open letter to the President of the @royalsociety.org – time to stand up for your values. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/...

Of course it’s a coup Miss the obvious, lose your republic

Of course it’s a coup. Miss the obvious, lose your republic.
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Word of the Day is ‘bayard’ (16th century): one who has the supreme self-confidence of ignorance.

The world's richest man - perhaps the richest man who has ever lived - gloating about shutting down aid for the world's poorest people. All while posing as the champion of the common man.

The great lie of populism in its most naked and morally putrid form.

Perfectly captured.

Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.

A very calm Loch Lomond with the snow capped mountains behind.

A very wintry and calm Loch Lomond this afternoon.

Happy New Year Jim!

Happy New Year!

Two-Dimensional Coupled Wave Theory for Triangular Lattice TM-Polarised Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers This paper presents a coupled-wave analysis of triangular-lattice photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) with transverse magnetic polarization. Six plane waves coupled by Bragg diffraction ...

Congratulations to Matthew Robinson for publishing his first paper on Two-Dimensional Coupled Wave Theory for Triangular Lattice TM-Polarised Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (PCSELs) - a hot topic in the #semiconductor #laser field ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/doc...

Perhaps. But I suppose it may send a message, whether intentional or not, that the wider academic body are there for delivery, rather than to contribute and develop the content. In my experience, the discussion at boards has helped to refine the course content based on collective input and debate.

That’s a significant change. The flavour of degree programmes is largely driven by academics that are sufficiently engaged and motivated to develop new courses. Removing boards of studies will produce degrees that look very similar, take away student choice and reduce the individuality of degrees.

Advent candles

Happy Advent!

Snowy street.

First snow of the season here. A good excuse to stay at home, build the traditional snowman and then keep nice and warm inside with the first glühwein of the season!

It’s a beautiful crystal! I’ve spent many years looking at incorporating bismuth in semiconductor alloys such as GaAsBi. Its large atomic mass makes it very useful for photonics, spintronics and quantum applications.